The Deep End of the Ocean

While checking into a hotel, Beth Cappadora's (Michelle Pfeiffer) son disappears. Nine year's later, a boy shows up on Beth's doorstep asking to mow the lawn. It's him—she knows it. This psychological film deals with the unexpected and unsettling aspects of a child's disappearance and the further disruptions stemming from his return. Her guilt-plagued older son (Jonathan Jackson) compliments Pfeiffer's believable intensity, although Whoopi Goldberg's detective could have been fleshed out more fully. All in all, Ocean is an unconventional, uncompromised drama carried by the strength of its female lead.